ATI 9700 Pro?

Well, playing through the Far Cry demo made me realise how old Geforce 4 4200 is. I have the 64 meg version and it starting to show it's age. And with a number of fancy new shooters on the horizon this year, I decided to start thinking about an upgrade.

After a quick look a Newegg I found this, ATI 9700 Pro. At that price it sounds like a pretty good deal? I've never owned an ATI card before but it seems like their reputation for lousy driver support has made a complete turn around over the last couple of years. Can I expect a decent performance increase with this card? Or should I just wait it out until the R420 and NV40 hit the streets this spring?

Thanks man, you''re making me feel like my graphics card is a loser. 128 MB GF 4 ti 4400.

I''m not planning on upgrading until the next generation of graphics cards hits; the really truly DirectX 9 compliant ones.

That said, I''ve heard very good things bout the 9700 Pro. I used to use ATI cards until NVidia really cranked things up in the late GeForce 2 era. If you want to upgrade, wait until the next batch hits this spring, then you can choose to either buy a (by then) much less expensive 9700 Pro or the new benchmarks might convince you to pick up one of the R420 or NV40''s.

Personally, I''m very heavily leaning toward moving back to ATI for my next card. I''ve been very disappointed with the performance of the GF FX series as compared to the Radeon 9700+ series.

I''m not planning on upgrading until the next generation of graphics cards hits; the really truly DirectX 9 compliant ones.

They are out...they are called 9700 Pro, 9800 Pro, 5900s, 5950s.

Back on topic: I think the 9700 Pro is a very nice card. But if you are waiting to get a new card for the newer games at least wait until the new games are released. Far Cry, Doom 3 and HL2 will probably not be out until late March or April so you have time to wait for even lower prices. I would get a 9800 Pro probably.

9700 Pro for $200 is a pretty good deal.. I would certainly go with that...with a fast processor that will last you another 2-3 years.

9700 Pro is essentially a 10-20% slower 9800 Pro/9800 XT

With some luck and good cooling you can boost it to 9800Pro levels

While the price/performance is on ATI''s side right now, I get the impression that their drivers are still more buggy than nVidia''s. Whenever I hear of a game needing a graphics card workaround (going back to old drivers, downloading the latest/greatest, etc.), it always seems to be an ATI problem. Game patch fix lists also tend to have a lot more ATI entries than nVidia.

Meanwhile, I''ve never had a problem with my nVidia card, and that''s while I''ll likely stick with them. Not trying to start a flame war - I''m just sayin''.

I have a ATI 7500, and I''m in need of an upgrade as well: POP, and Armed and Dangerous sends the system into a reboot after about 15 minutes. Somethign do to with the game looking for something that my chip cannot suport (the event log says something about ATI truevector error).

But $200? I can''t afford that. I was looking at the 9200, which would get me into something fairly current, but wouldn''t break the bank. Anyone have one of these?

How much do you want to spend mateo?

BB has the 9200 for $100, which seems reasonable. I can probably skip some lunches and get to the $120 range, but other than that, we are looking at a new console type money.

I have the 9000 pro and it still suits me well. You can get one for pretty cheap nowadays as well.

"KillerTomato" wrote:

While the price/performance is on ATI''s side right now, I get the impression that their drivers are still more buggy than nVidia''s. Whenever I hear of a game needing a graphics card workaround (going back to old drivers, downloading the latest/greatest, etc.), it always seems to be an ATI problem. Game patch fix lists also tend to have a lot more ATI entries than nVidia.

Meanwhile, I''ve never had a problem with my nVidia card, and that''s while I''ll likely stick with them. Not trying to start a flame war - I''m just sayin''. :-)

You could do a flip ATI with Nvidia and you''d have my experiences...other than the first statement.

Given thousands of different combinations of hardware/software its a miracle anything can work.

Overall given Nvidia''s lackluster PS 2.0 speed I would not buy any of their current gen of cards. Some of their forward thinking statements are disturbing also..

We''ll see how the next round fares..

Thanks for the feedback guys. After spending the day debating it with myself I think I''m going to hold out until at least March. I doubt my income tax return will be here before then anyway and maybe a 9800 Pro will drop down into a price range I''m comfortable with by then. If not I''m guessing I''ll still be able to pick up the 9700 Pro up for this price if not less.

"Gameguru" wrote:

9700 Pro for $200 is a pretty good deal..

...until the next batch of cards come out and the prices in general of already released cards drop again.

And yeah, you''re right about the 9700+ cards being fully DirectX 9 compliant, but what I meant (I just didn''t state it well) is that I''m waiting until they''re not only compliant, but powerful enough to run with all the fancy-pants effects on at high resolutions with a very nice framerate for the games that will be out next year and the year after.

"Farscry" wrote:
"Gameguru" wrote:

9700 Pro for $200 is a pretty good deal..

...until the next batch of cards come out and the prices in general of already released cards drop again.

And yeah, you''re right about the 9700+ cards being fully DirectX 9 compliant, but what I meant (I just didn''t state it well) is that I''m waiting until they''re not only compliant, but powerful enough to run with all the fancy-pants effects on at high resolutions with a very nice framerate for the games that will be out next year and the year after. :)

Here is my advice for tech buying in general..

Never buy anything looking towards the future.. there will always be something coming down the road thats cheaper and faster..

One can wait to buy forever.. there is never a good time to buy anything tech related..

To believe so is foolish.

So in essence.. you could repeat your first statement for ever and ever and ever and ever...

Usually what I do is wait until the next batch of cards comes out and see if any of my friends with the previous top of the line cards want to sell theirs for a reasonable price I don''t mind hand-me-downs when they are able to run the latest games at 60-100 fps

"Tobyus" wrote:

Usually what I do is wait until the next batch of cards comes out and see if any of my friends with the previous top of the line cards want to sell theirs for a reasonable price I don''t mind hand-me-downs when they are able to run the latest games at 60-100 fps ;)

Heh, unfortunately I''m usually the one in my group with the most up-to-date hardware.

I have a feeling I''m gonna go with the 9700. If I do happen to get lucky and the 9800''s take a drop in price in the next month I''ll go with that, but I refuse to pay more than $250 for a video card. I cna''t find anything bad about the 9700 and $200 is very much in my comfort range.

One last question here. Has anyone heard of any compatibility issues using ATI video cards with nForce 2 motherboards? I wouldn''t think so, but I guess I should check that out.

One last question here. Has anyone heard of any compatibility issues using ATI video cards with nForce 2 motherboards? I wouldn''t think so, but I guess I should check that out.

I''m running an Nforce 2 board and an ATI 9800 Pro. I had loads of problems at first but it turned out to be RAM related since the Nforce boards are pretty picky about RAM. Since then, not a problem for me.

I cna''t find anything bad about the 9700 and $200 is very much in my comfort range.

Well, looks like a good purchase then.

I can''t say regarding the nForce 2 mobo if there are compatibility issues, though.

I thought I had problems with the nforce/ati compatibility once, but it just turned out that the mobo was whack. I''m still wary of nforce for some reason. Especially when VIA has become so reliable.

I''m running an ATI 9800 Pro with an Asus NForce2 board; no problems whatsoever.

You people with your fancy 9800Pro cards. Do you use that with your gold plated mouse and your diamond encrusted monitors??

I''ve got a 9500Pro and a DFI nforce 2 board and haven''t had any problems.

"Kriegshund" wrote:

You people with your fancy 9800Pro cards. Do you use that with your gold plated mouse and your diamond encrusted monitors??

I''ve got a 9500Pro and a DFI nforce 2 board and haven''t had any problems.

I just bought the radeon 9600xt b/c it was 200 dollars retail with a half life 2 promise in box...i thought it was a good deal considering i''m buying hl2 so that makes the card essentially 150...

"Kriegshund" wrote:

You people with your fancy 9800Pro cards. Do you use that with your gold plated mouse and your diamond encrusted monitors??.

Hey this 9800 Pro is the first ""top of the line"" vidcard I''ve splurged for. You gotta treat yourself sometime! Of course right after I got it they came out with the XT but that sort of thing is expected.

I bought a GeForce 256 Pro right when they came out, so I feel your pain. Cost me $350 at the time I think. Of course, at that point, it was THE king hell video card.
It''s just my jealousy talking. With a wedding coming up and a possiblr home purchase I''m lucky I still get to buy games at all.

Personally, I''d buy an nVidia 5700 Ultra for $139, then upgrade in 6 on 12 months. (actually just bought one here in China for about $128)

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...

Or an ATI 9600XT for a little bit more. (@$150) I can never justify buying the latest card, so I just buy the middle of the road card at least once a year, depending on the tech cycle.

Just my 2 cents...

Oh, btw, I''d definitely skip on the 9200SE (if that''s the 9200 that was mentioned). Check out some reviews, the performance is pretty bad, and it is NOT DX9 compatible. (confusing, since I believe the 9000 cards are)

Although if you have to go with the ultra budget card, you can find it for less than $50 on Pricewatch, but I''m still not sure it''s worth it...

You defintely want to pass on any 9000/9200 ATI card as they are simply rebadged 8500''s No DX 9 support they are DX8.1 cards..

Drunkagain..

I just sold 3 9700Pros for $150 apiece and a 9800NP for $165..

Too bad the trading forum got shut down

I just sold 3 9700Pros for $150 apiece and a 9800NP for $165..

Too bad the trading forum got shut down

BIG FAT DOH!

I currently use a 9700 Pro (Hercules Prophet 9700 Pro 128) that came in an alienware rig I bought last March. It is a great card, no problems or compatibility issues at all. ATI keeps upgrading the drivers regularly, too.

I''d suggest you look at MWave.com for prices, I have bought fromn them before. Both their prices and service have been good.

Stop the presses!

Newegg has Sapphire 9800 pro for $229. Free shipping!

Oh crap. Resist... RESIST!

That''s me talking to myself. On a message board.